Insurance and Banking Consultancies Find Significant Benefits When Switching to a Cloud Based XBRL Reporting Platform

UBPartner (www.ubpartner.com) announced today that usage of its XT Cloud Service has soared over the last 12 months. New figures show that around 150 insurance firms and banks are now using the service for both quarterly and annual reports, primarily for Solvency II and CRD4 reporting. The newly updated system is servicing some 6,000 conversion and validation processes and making in excess of 7.5m data quality checks. It supports 5 major reporting frameworks, some 20+ independent taxonomy versions and provides a 24/7 service with minimum downtime.

Much of the new growth is driven by actuarial, insurance and banking consulting companies moving their clients to the Cloud Service. As part of this shift, UBPartner’s experts take responsibility for managing the software platform, updating software and loading new taxonomies as they are released; allowing the consulting companies to focus on delivering more high-value services to their customers and spending less time on IT issues.

Actuelia is a perfect example of this trend. Providing a full range of actuarial and consulting services, Actuelia offers its insurance clients access to a broad range of experts, thereby guaranteeing the best level of advice in risk analysis and helping insurance firms respond quickly to rapidly evolving competition, product complexity, and regulatory reporting requirements. It was already using UBPartner’s flexible XBRL Toolkit (XT) installing it on their clients’ local desktops. However, to manage the resourcing demands needed to expand its Solvency 2 reporting services, it decided to move its XBRL conversion and validation activities onto the UBPartner XT Cloud Service. This solution provides the same easy-to-use tools and fully mapped Solvency II templates on a ‘Software as a Service (SAAS)’ basis, devolving responsibility for IT support to UBPartner.

Ease of implementation and scalability

Frank Boukobza of Actuelia stated: “We are a growing actuarial service company seeking to provide additional value to our customers where we can. UBPartner’s XBRL tools are simple to use and allowed us to better help our customers to generate reports for Solvency 2. When UBPartner told us that we could use the same tools over the web, providing more collaboration and removing the hassle of maintaining and updating the software, we were very keen to try it.”

“The move to the XT Cloud Service was simple, and the system lived up to everything we hoped for. We can simply add new clients as we continue to grow, without worrying about the additional IT demands. Web access allows our consultants to work alongside clients as they produce their first reports and whenever they need our help. As a result, we can focus on delivering better quality services, while UBPartner manages the technical platform for us. It’s a perfect combination.”

XT Cloud Service: a simple, low-cost solution

The web-based service is built upon UBPartner’s XT Portal software, which can also be implemented as a local system. This solution provides the ideal XBRL reporting platform for Group Finance or Shared Service providers, providing XBRL conversion and validation services to multiple reporting entities or clients.

The managed Cloud-based service, on the other hand, is ideal for businesses that do not have the IT resources to run the systems themselves. It enables firms to scale usage alongside growth while creating a more collaborative environment to work with clients, as the system can be accessed from anywhere at any time.

Speaking of the Cloud-based service, Steve Berdah, VP – Southern Europe, noted, “UBPartner ensures that the latest security is built into the cloud service and provides full back-up and disaster recovery features that small business often cannot implement. Our partners and customers do not have to concern themselves with installation, software maintenance nor taxonomy updates, as our experienced UBPartner staff takes care of all of that.”

“The simple ‘pay as you go,’ subscription-based model is kind to cash flow and fits nicely with other consulting services being provided. Add to that, the ease of setup and management, and suddenly the scary XBRL project looks a lot friendlier.”

“Our team recently updated the underlying technical architecture in a project we called ‘Octopus.’ The system can now be scaled to support any number of servers effortlessly and offers 24/7 access. UBPartner’s XBRL technology has also been certified by XBRL International to support the XBRL standards. These are significant achievements that protect our customers’ investments in XBRL.”

XBRL is fast becoming the market standard for financial information exchange and reporting. Leading organisations such as the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), and numerous government agencies are driving XBRL programs. The XBRL standard is maintained by XBRL International: www.xbrl.org.

About UBPartner

UBPartner is a privately-owned company with headquarters in Paris and offices in London. It provides a full suite of solutions and services that enable companies and regulatory agencies to realize the benefits of XBRL – from the underlying processing engine to desktop development and deployment tools, all the way to packaged solutions for regulators and government agencies.